After watching Dr Phil for a little bit last night with Cate, I quickly reached a point of disgust that actually made me feel like I had to just drop it and walk away.

Last night's much-hyped episode featured the so-called octo mom Nadya Suleman. Suleman discussed her much-publicised situation and took a few questions from the audience which is all fine and good. Dr Phil even went as far as to several times state that he thought what she did was irresponsible, selfish, etc, but now is now and we need to help her for the kids.

Whatever.

What really made me upset is the fact that there seems to be no effort underway to punish this woman and her fertility doctor for the reckless decisions they made. Even worse, while the general public attitude towards this woman borders on disgust, there seems to be an absolute lack of public demand for federal legislation that would at the very least highly discouragethis type of action. What the hell happened to personal, professional and social responsibility in this country? Why don't we care that these people (Nadya and her doctor) were at the very least morally and socially in the wrong and nothing is being done about it?

Carol Gilbert recently wrote an article regarding the Georgia legislature's bizzare response to the Suleman case, Georgia Senate Bill 169. While the legislation appears to be garbage that draws incorrect conclusions from the situation and appears more as political opportunism by right-to-life advocates than truly necessary legislation, Gilbert's following excerpt really hits home with me:

Octo-Mom Nadya Suleman's controversial decision to have 6 embryos implanted at one time through in vitro fertilization, a decision which led to the birth of the first surviving set of octuplets, sparked nationwide outrage. The press depicted Nadya Suleman, aka the Octo-Mom, as irresponsible. She was not a childless woman longing for a baby or even a parent of one or two children hoping to create a typical size family. Nadya Suleman has been widely reviled because she had 6 children ages 7 and under yet chose to have 6 embryos implanted at once- at a time when she was unmarried, unemployed, dependent on her parents and public assistance for support, and already overwhelmed by the responsibilities of caring for 6 young children.

Most of us already knew this, but let it sink in again- We, the voting public, allowed this woman and all that follow to do this. I'm not talking about restricting a woman's natural right to have children, so don't even look in that direction. What I'm talking about is that someone who is a single parent living at taxpayer expense who already has 6 children under 7 years old (!) was permitted by law without repercussion to have a whopping 6 embryos implanted in her that resulted in her 8 new children.

If you think this is ok, then I feel sorry for you because by accepting this you also reject the general concept of social responsibility, ignore the core issue of overpopulation, and totally dismiss the additional strain this places on already-broken, publicly-funded, social services.

Which brings me to the real question, did we ever really care about these things in the first place, or are we just going to keep chugging along like idiots into oblivion while things crumble down around us?

Please follow my lead and contact your state senators and district representatives and let them know just how disgusted you are with this situation. Below is the form email I sent to Bill Nelson, Mel Martinez and Suzanne Kosmas:

[name of senator/representative],

I am writing to you today to express my dissatisfaction with a lack of federal legislation that could have prevented Nadya Suleman's doctor, Michael Kamrava, from implanting 6 embryos at once in a woman whom at the time was unmarried, unemployed, dependent on her parents and public assistance for support, and already overwhelmed by the responsibilities of caring for 6 young children.

Please bring this subject to light amongst your colleagues and work toward introducing actionable legislation that will discourage and/or punish this kind of action by irresponsible doctors and parents and serve to reduce the resulting burden on taxpayers.

Thank you for your time!

Jonathan Walters

What say you?